“A woman picking at a thread of discontent can unravel the world.” Author unknown

Tuesday, November 10, 2009

The Upside of Anger

“Never go to bed angry. Stay up and fight.” Phyllis Diller

“Do not teach your children never to be angry; teach them how to be angry.” Lyman Abbott.

“If you are patient in one moment of anger, you will escape a hundred days of sorrow.” Chinese Proverb

I’ve been making some profound connections of late. Recently I had begun doing some research on anger’s effect on the brain. I had a theory that as we all have been repressing our emotions since the beginning of history that we literally have suffered brain damage from the suppression of such emotions and as a result have not been “whole.” I had read about such in my meanderings into brain science in the past few years. But now, having become so aware of deep feelings of intense rage which exacerbate my headaches and witnessing a nascent creativity to which I’d never known might reside within me, I began to understand that perhaps a result of my getting in touch with my long dormant emotions was in actuality lighting up new areas of my brain as I became more comfortable in feeling and processing all of my emotions.

In the truly mysterious ways in which our lives unfold, soon after beginning my inquiry, I began reading a sequel to a book that I read several years ago, The Eight. Katherine Neville’s latest novel The Fire is an astounding romp through occult history. My attention was grabbed early on as I realized that this was not just a pleasure read. There were references to the Phoenix and the Firebird, the Swan, symbols related to numbers, Chess, ancient wisdom, hidden agendas, etc. Almost each new page was pregnant with new meaning for me as I tested what I’ve learned over the my lifetime as a student of economics, history and religion. Neville’s novels are complex stories of historical interconnections which only someone with a larger view of history might provide.

I learned in her book an explanation of the Firebird which I had previously mistakenly assumed was the Phoenix. I’ve been anxiously awaiting a personal Phoenix rising out of the ashes of my former life. “The Firebird is nothing like the Phoenix, which bursts into flame each 500 years and rises from its own ashes. The tale of the Phoenix is one of self sacrifice and rebirth. The Firebird gives up its golden feather…to bring Prince Ivan back to life. When the Firebird appears, the message to be understood is “Recalled to Life.” Always watching intently for omens, I wondered, was I finally being called back to life? I have spent the last 14 plus years hunkered down in abject poverty, doing what I’ve been calling my soul’s work. I had consciously taken up a personal quest to get in touch with a whole, healthy feminine energy to balance out the extreme masculine energy which defines and distorts our world. My path, as I came to call my spiritual journey has taken me far afield into, of all things, astrology and ancient medicines—thus really ancient studies of electromagnetic energy. Both disciplines taught me important lessons, long forgotten through history, about balancing energy. This knowledge was known throughout antiquity in both the East and West and forms the basis of our sciences and mathematics.

Lately my long endured research into energy led me to conclude that my personal planetary ruler as recently ascertained is Pluto. Pluto is the ruler of Aries—a fiery planet ruling a fire sign. Over the past 13-14 years, Pluto was transiting through Capricorn an earth sign which relates to how individual insecurity’s manifest. Capricorn is contractive: certainly my life contracted accordingly—I have been almost singly focused on my personal work. Now Pluto is in Sagittarius another fire sign, but one of societal reform and expansion. So you might say that I have a passion for societal reform.

All of this is definitely personally significant but more importantly globally significant. The quote above indicated that the Phoenix rises every 500 years—I had long, as a student of history, been aware of such important historical cycles, the last of which culminating after the European Renaissance into the Age of Discovery which seemed to portend at the next passage of Pluto through Sagittarius the birth of the United States. At first I thought that perhaps these major societal transitions occurred at each passage of Pluto into Sagittarius, but as the orbit takes approximately 248 years, it must relate to every second completed orbit--but as can be seen in the example just sited the next transit may complete the promise of the first. Thus it is time for another huge societal leap which is to be punctuated with a Pluto/Uranus square which will be exact in 2012. (This connection revolutionizes the 500 year major transitional cycle.) The last time Uranus and Pluto formed a major aspect in the sky was in 1966. The 60’s were a time of major societal upheavals. We witnessed the women’s movement, civil rights and massive demonstrations over U.S. involvement in the Vietnam war, etc.

As a small child in the 1960’s, I witnessed and became a P.O.W. in the war between the sexes through my parents struggle’s with their own personal imbalances. The time had not yet arrived for those struggles to be dealt with consciously, either personally and societally, but those issues that the new Uranus/Pluto cycle stirred up certainly formed the basis for my personal ‘internal’ work and, I believe, our work now as a planet.

As I progressed through reading The Fire. I found this quote: “Yeats Aengus…had the fire in the head that shamans everywhere believe is the source of enlightenment, illuminating visions of other realities. The shamanic journey begins and ends in the mind.” Tom Cowan, Fire in the Head

This seemed to represent an answer to my recent inquiries into the emotional impact of anger on the brain. As fire has a purifying effect, so then might repressed anger have such an effect on us. I am reminded of how the output of volcanic eruptions remineralize the depleted dead soils thus allowing new life to arise from an enriched new earth.

So there is an upside to anger. Our willingness to get in touch with the fire within and finally see clearly what is illuminated about our ailing world, can ultimately purify our lives and restore the fecundity of our planet. I was reminded of this while perusing YouTube to hear selected music videos. I listened anew to the Dixie Chick’s “Not ready to make nice.” This song was the group’s response to the extreme backlash, which included death threats, after lead singer Natalie Maines’ offhand comment on a London stage as the U.S. prepared to invade Iraq. When Maines impishly smiles at the line in the song, “It turned my whole world around, and I kind of like it,” I understood her trial by fire. There is no turning back, but then there is no desire to turn back. Our work is before us—in the words of The Trammps, “Burn baby burn.”

About Me

Ant Architecture

This structure is located entirely below ground. It is quite symbolic of hidden networks which we have no awareness of but nevertheless are quite complex--similar to the economy, the law and organized religion--which I have come to recognize as the "tools of colonialization and conquest." Lots of concealed machinations!

SOME FAVORITE QUOTES

"(S)he who asks is a fool for five minutes, but (s)he who does not ask remains a fool forever." Chinese Proverb

"A few who can understand the system (check money and credits) will either be so interested in it’s profits, or so dependent on its favors, that there will be no opposition from that class, while on the other hand, the great body of the people mentally incapable of comprehending the tremendous advantage that capital derives from the system, will bear it's burdens without complaint, and perhaps without even suspecting that the system is inimical to their interests." Rothschild Brothers of London

"A sobering thought what if, at this very moment, I am living up to my potential." Jane Wagner

"A thing is right when it tends to preserve the integrity, stability, and beauty of the biotic community." Aldo Leopold

"All paid jobs absorb and degrade the mind." Aristotle

"Capitalism is the astounding belief that the most wickedest of men will do the most wickedest of things for the greatest good of everyone." John Maynard Keynes

"Chemicals, n: Noxious substances from which modern foods are made." ~Author Unknown

"Creation myths are not about the origins of the world at all, but about the origins of patriarchy which has claimed itself as the world." Jane Caputi

"Do not wait for leaders; do it alone, person to person." Mother Teresa

"Faced with the choice between changing one's mind and proving that there is no need to do so, almost everyone gets busy on the proof." J.K. Galbraith

"Feminism directly confronts the idea that one person or set of people (has) the right to impose definitions of reality on others." Liz Stanley and Sue Wise

"Food is an important part of a balanced diet." Fran Lebowitz

"Historians, both male and female, have not always resisted the temptation to see the rise of monotheism as a plot against women, since the after effects have been so disastrous for the female sex." Rosalind Miles

"History is a better guide than good intentions." Jeane Kirkpatrick

"History is the glorification of murderers and robbers." Karl Popper

"History provides a laboratory in which we see played out the actual as well as the intended consequences of action." Liz Coleman

"History says, Don't Hope On this side of the grave. But then, once in a lifetime The longed-for tidal wave Of justice can rise up, And hope and history rhyme." Seamus Heaney

"Hollywood has to take its proud place along side the 'morals police' of the Ayatollah Khomeini for its valuable work in keeping women in line and training them to be everything a regular guy could ever hope for as his wife and the mother of his children." Rosalind Miles

"I began waking up slowly into history, from which we do not emerge as from other nightmares." Martha Cooley

"I don't know why we are here, but I'm pretty sure that it is not in order to enjoy ourselves." Ludwig Wittgenstein

"I have noticed that as soon as you have soldiers the story is called history. Before their arrival it is called myth, folktale, legend, fairy tale, oral poetry, ethnography. After the soldiers arrive, it is called history." Paula Gunn Allen

"I know we're termites. But if all the termites got together, the house would fall down." Florynce Kennedy

"I was so overprotected, I used to think I was as delicate as people said I was." Natalie Wood

"I'll be post-feminist in the post-patriarchy." Meg Sullivan

"If all men are born free, how is it that all women are born slaves." Mary Astell

"If you're not living on the edge you're taking up too much space." Mary Elizabeth Croft

"In a time of universal deceit, telling the truth is a revolutionary act." George Orwell

"In a world where there is so much to be done, I felt strongly impressed that there must be something for me to do." Dorothea Dix

"Leap, and the net will appear." Julie Cameron

"Leave it to a girl to take the fun out of sex discrimination." Bill Watterson

"My Dad's philosophy is having a job is expensive. You spend all your time working for someone else, you haven't any time to work to do things for yourself." Bo in "Off the Map"

"My Dad's philosophy is having a job is expensive. You spend all your time working for someone else, you haven't any time to work to do things for yourself." Bo in "Off the Map"

"My passions were all gathered together like fingers that made a fist. Drive is considered agressive today; I knew it as purpose." Bette Davis

"None Are More Hopelessly Enslaved Than Those Who Falsely Believe They Are Free!" Johann von Goethe

"Rumors of our progress have been greatly exaggerated: one of my constituents deducted $600,000 from his taxes--he'd taken business clients to Scores, a strip joint. Yet many of my constituents--men and women--can not deduct the costs of their child care. This is ridiculous." U.S. Rep Carloyn Moloney (D-NY)

"Sometimes whatever doesn't kill you...can really piss you off for a long time!" Symbio's Page of Witticisms

"Success is going from failure to failure without any loss of enthusiasm". – Winston Churchill

"The best mind-altering drug is the truth." Lily Tomlin

"The ceiling isn't glass; it's a very dense layer of men." Anne Jardim

"The main thing history can teach us is that human actions have consequences and that certain choices, once made, cannot be undone. They foreclose the possibility of making other choices and thus they determine future events." Gerda Lerner

"The optimist thinks this is the best of all possible worlds, the pessimists knows it." J. Robert Oppenheimer

"The reward for conformity is everyone likes you but yourself." Rita Mae Brown

"The universe is full of magical things, patiently waiting for our wits to grow sharper." Eden Phillpotts

"There are a thousand hacking at the branches of evil for every one striking at the root." H.D. Thoreau

"There is a vitality, a life force, an energy, a quickening, that is translated through you into action, and because there is only one of you in all time, this expression is unique. And if you block it, it will never exist through any other medium and will be lost." Martha Graham

"They could not imagine the things they lived for could disappear. They could not believe...that something essential could disappear, that a whole spiritual realm is threatened. They did not believe in major historical upheavals that obliterate all traces of previous generations and entirely tranform continents. They do not believe that what seems to them unjust is possible." Antoine de Saint Exupery

"Too many have dispensed with generosity in order to practice charity." Albert Camus

"Vengence is a lazy person's form of grief." Author unknown

"Vision is the art of seeing things invisible." Jonathan Swift

"We are living in a world today where lemonade is made from artificial flavors and furniture polish is made from real lemons." ~Alfred E. Newman

"We don't see things are they are. We see them as we are."Anais Nin

"We spend most of our lives cutting down our ambitions because the world told us to think small. Dreams express what your soul is telling you, so as crazy as your dream might seem--even to you--I don't care; you have to let it out." Former World Bank economist Eleni Gabre-Madhim

"What gets us into trouble is not what we don't know. It's what we know for sure that just ain't so." Mark Twain

"What is not recorded is not remembered." Benazir Bhutto

"Women's history is the primary tool for women's emancipation." Gerda Lerner

"Write what should not be forgotten." Isabel Allende

"You assist an evil system most effectively by obeying its orders and decrees. An evil system never deserves such allegiance. Allegiance to it means partaking of the evil. A good person will resist an evil system with his or her whole soul." Mahatma Gandhi

"You can safely assume that you've created God in your own image when it turns out that God hates all the same people that you do." Anne Lamott

"You can’t make anything idiot-proof because idiots are so ingenious." Ron Burns

"You must learn from the mistakes of others. You can't possibly live long enough to make them all yourself." Sam Levenson

History has been the chronicle of psychopaths (4% of pop.) who have evolved a system that preys on the rest of us. Get it? Okay, now what? Catherine Isadora

“A doctor pointed out that estrogen (the female hormone) is at its lowest level during the menstrual cycle. So at our “worst,” we are most like the way men are all the time.” (from Chicago North Suburban NOW Newsletter

“A woman picking at a thread of discontent can unravel the world.”Author Unknown

“Each progressive spirit is opposed by a thousand mediocre minds appointed to guard the past.” Maurice Maeterlinck

“If it ain’t food don’t eat it. “ Author unknown

“Morality represents the way people would like the world to work—whereas economics represents how it actually does work.” Author Unknown

“One of the things about equality is not just that you be treated equally to a man, but that you treat yourself equally to the way you treat a man.” Marlo Thomas

“Read no history-nothing but biography, for that is life without theory.” Benjamin Disraeli

“Religion is for people who are frightened of going to Hell; Spiritualism is for those who have already been there.” Gary Busey

“The Great Depression in the United States,” wrote Milton Friedman, “…is a testament to how much harm can be done by mistakes on the part of a few men when they wield vast power over the monetary system of a country”

“The great enemy of the truth is very often not the lie - deliberate, contrived, and dishonest - but the myth - persistent, persuasive and realistic.” John F. Kennedy

“The Messiah is not coming and he’s not even going to call!" –Israeli Hit Tune in 2001

“The Various forms of worship, which prevailed in the Roman World, were all considered by the people to be equally true, by the philosophers to be equally false, and by the magistrate as equally useful.” Edward Gibbon, Decline and Fall of the Roman Empire

“There are a thousand hacking at the branches of evil to one who is striking at the root”- H.D. Thoreau

“Vegetables are the food of the earth; fruit seems more the food of the heavens.” ~Sepal Felicivant

“Women have served all these centuries as looking glasses possessing the power of reflecting the figure of man at twice his natural size.” Virginia Woolfe

“Yet, we all live in fear. We actually are not permitted to experience the most efficient way to learn, without severe emotional, not to mention physical, mental, and spiritual repercussions. Our society is designed to keep us from venturing out, experimenting, throwing caution to the wind, because we are kept in fear of making mistakes. Society discourages us from ‘living’. We are punished if we don’t either make amends or correct our ways. The entire court system, which came from the ego mind, is based upon this.” Mary Elizabeth Croft

“You assist an evil system most effectively by obeying its orders and decrees. An evil system never deserves such allegiance. Allegiance to it means partaking of the evil. A good person will resist an evil system with his or her whole soul.” Mahatma Gandhi

Calm Through Chaos

by Eric M. Strom

The Hopi Elders Speak:

We Are the Ones We've Been Waiting For

You have been telling the people that this is the Eleventh Hour. Now you must go back and tell the people that this is The Hour. And there are things to be considered:

Where are you living?

What are you doing?

What are your relationships?

Are you in right relation?

Where is your water?

Know your garden.

It is time to speak your Truth.

Create your community.

Be good to each other. And do not look outside yourself for the leader. This could be a good time! There is a river flowing now very fast. It is so great and swift that there are those who will be afraid. They will try to hold on to the shore. They will feel they are being torn apart, and they will suffer greatly. Know the river has its destination. The elders say we must let go of the shore, push off into the middle of the river, keep our eyes open, and our heads above the water. See who is in there with you and celebrate. At this time in history, we are to take nothing personally. Least of all, ourselves. For the moment that we do, our spiritual growth and journey comes to a halt. The time of the lone wolf is over. Gather yourselves! Banish the word struggle from your attitude and your vocabulary. All that we do now must be done in a sacred manner and in celebration. We are the ones we've been waiting for.

—The Elders Oraibi Arizona Hopi Nation

Note to "Resources for Understanding..."

I have been consumed with studying economics since majoring in history in college. I saw how cycles of boom and bust periodically punctuated by a major economic meltdown disrupted and at times totally destroyed peoples lives. This observation led to me wonder, "how might we have an economy which serves us rather than us serving it?" I have come to understand that only when the truth of what has been created is known might we then be free to find that economy.

I have spent 25 years researching this topic on my own. I have read history, economics, and business books like most people read novels--for years averaging about 70 books a year. I could not have summarized my findings any better than the resources which follow.

It is within our ability to create a much more equitable and balanced economic system: a system which serves our humanity rather than oppresses it. Fortunately, when we finally understand the web in which we are entrapped, there is a way out.....

Who Cooked The Last Supper? The Women's History of the World by Rosalind Miles

Women and Love: A Cultural Revolution in Progress by Shere Hite

Balance

Notes to Health and Nutrition Section

Many years ago I read a copy of a speech delivered by Rudolf Steiner to an audience in London during the 1920's. He spoke of how all our lives we've been encouraged to use a intermediary in all areas of our lives except in our economic life in which we all are actively engaged: we've had the church or organized religion for our spiritual needs; the medical profession for our health needs; government for our political and social constructions, etc.

The point was, I think upon reflection, that it would be only in our direct interaction with the economy that we would come to see the truth in how we have been controlled throughout history. As we realize the validity of this perspective, we must also begin to take back control and responsibility for all aspects of our lives.

I have spent a lot of time learning about alternative medicines and gravitating toward Traditional Chinese Medicine (TCM). I found TCM to be most intuitive and easy to grasp with relatively little time expended in acquiring a working knowledge. It's all about balance.

I believe that traditional medicines, whether they be Native American, African, Ayurvedic, Chinese, Tibetan, etc., are all remnants of a global system of health which has been lost through history after the cataclysms which wracked our planet some 5,000 years ago. These systems of health are predicated on prevention and a recognition of the importance of balance in our intellectual, spirital, physical and emotional lives. I encourage you to explore these venues for health. I have included a number of my favorite books and other which I have found helpful to get you started on this journey back to wholeness.

Health Books

Acupressure's Potent Points: A Guide to Self-Care for Common Ailments by Michael Reed Gach

Izzys Serious Humor

Disclaimer

This is a personal blog. The opinions expressed here represent my own based on my research and experience. My thoughts and opinions change from time to time…I consider this a necessary consequence of growing and maturing. While every caution has been taken to provide my readers with most accurate information and honest analysis, please use your discretion before making any decisions based on the information in this blog.